The Beauty Of Secrets
by kepchy1000
Summary: All Humans. Rosalie and Alice compete in a Beauty contest each year so Bella is torn between two friendships: the Cullens and the Hales. What will happen? Everyone secretly dates... Except for Mike : BxE RxEm AxJ


**I do not own Twilight... It's all the art of Stephenie Meyer.**

**The Beauty Of Secrets**

**Preface**

"Mum! I don't need this right now! I have mid-terms next month and there is no need for me to have a boyfriend!" I scowled.

"But Bella, honey, this Mike guy is the perfect match for you. I insist you give him a chance. I hear he goes to your school too! Isn't that perfect?"

"Perfectly horrifying…" I muttered, but that just made Renee glare.

"Isabelle Marie Swan! If you ever want to see Rosalie again, you are to date Mike Newton. His family and ours are close and you kids will make an amazing match."

My face was burning. How I hated this side of Renee. Couldn't she just understand that having a boyfriend wasn't the most important thing in the world? And anyway, they guys she usually picked out for me were total freaks. I'm quite sure this Mike won't be any different…

She my fists clench and her face softened.

"Bells just do this for me. Ok?"

I sighed, trying the make the impression that I seriously didn't want to do this. It soon realized that it wouldn't work when her face lit up with excitement; she obviously took the sign as a defeated one.

"Thank you Bella! You work regret this!"

I knew I would…

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**Chapter One: The 'Good Catch'.**

I slouched further and further down on the sofa, dreading for the worst conversation to appear, which I knew it would. Mike Newton. Even his name sounded slimy, like a newt. I giggled slightly at my mind jokes which caused Renee to peek a look at me with confusion.

"Are you OK Bella? You seem… devious."

"I'm fine Mum, really." I snickered, desperate to hold back the laughter.

"The Newtons will be here in an hour. Don't you think you should… change?" she said hesitantly. I peered down at my outfit. It was the style in which I usually covered myself; tank to and sweats.

"Why?" I questioned, I little hurt at the request.

"Well, Bella, I thought that you would like to dress up a little for your date with Mike. He's taking you to dinner you know?"

"I don't worry about what Mike will think. I heard he doesn't very often. And anyway, you know that Rosalie is booked to come round in five minutes?" I pressed. I had deliberately asked Rosalie to come; my weedy attempt to escape the clutches of Mike.

"Oh." Renee muttered. I crossed my fingers.

"Why don't you double date with her? I'm sure she can find someone, or maybe she could take Jasper? Not as a date of course, but as an escort…" I rolled my eyes at her suggestion. I knew Rose would never agree in taking her brother.

"Rose will probably just go alone. I'm sure that'll suit her fine." At least I wasn't alone with Mike. At least I had someone to protect me.

"Isn't Rosalie dating anymore?"

"Yeah, but she can't seem to find any good enough guys, in her eyes."

"A pretty girl like her shouldn't be wasted. Maybe I could arrange…"

"No Mum!" I intervened. "Rosalie is perfectly capable in looking after her own dating needs!" I nearly pierced my skin with my nails as I clasped my hands around each other.

"Isabella, I was only trying to help. Now go and get yourself dressed up. I don't want Mike's first impression of you to be of an unattractive, unpopular teenage girl. It's a good thing Rosalie is coming. I think you can use some of her style."

I bit my lip and held back the words I had, one second ago, thought were a good idea to say. Instead, I lifted myself off the sofa and stormed up the stairs to retreat into my bedroom. I attempted to meander across to my bedside light without a torch, as my main light bulb had blown, but failed excessively.

"Shoot!" I rubbed my leg. "Shin," I muttered to myself, "A device for finding furniture in the dark."

Once I finally found the bed-side lamp, I clicked it on and shuffled over to my wardrobe. I shouldn't really say it was _mine _because most of Rose's clothes were stored there for when she came to sleep. The only part of it which was mine was the draws at the bottom which mostly contained tank tops and sweats. I didn't really take to the idea of partying. It didn't bother me what guys thought of me or what I was wearing.

I shuffled through the piles of clothes that were stacked compactly together in the small spaces. It took me a few minutes to emerge with a red blouse and some black skinny jeans. They were what I only wore when Renee handed me dates. It was the only outfit that she said was suitable.

The doorbell rang a few seconds after I had flung them on.

"Come in!" I yelled down the stairs.

"Check." Rosalie replied.

I slumped onto the bed, covering my eyes with the backs of my wrists, resting my fingertips on the rim of my forehead.

"What the _hell _are you wearing?" Rosalie screamed when she appeared in the doorway.

"What I usually wear." I answered.

"No. I think what you usually wear is way better!" She stifled, her giggles substituted her shock. She toppled next to me onto the bed. "Why didn't you borrow one of my outfits?"

"Rose, you know I could never pull anything of yours off."

"Oh come on! Why don't you be more open-minded?"

"Because my brains will fall out." I glared.

"Bella, Shut up about that. You know you look good in everything… except for that. Now let me find you something sexy to wear…." She jumped up and ran to the wardrobe.

While Rosalie was chucking different clothes on the bed, I headed over to my computer and switched it on. I waited until it loaded up and chose email. A bleeping noise came from the monitor and the computer said wrote: Error. Multiple program memory jammed. Shut Down.

"Rose, have you noticed how fast Windows is?" She gave me a strange and deformed face. "Neither did I."

I rebooted the computer and sat back, head facing the ceiling. I skipped checking my emails, afraid of the fact that I would have the burden of rebooting again. I knew the only ones that I would have got were from either Lauren or Jessica saying how well their dates with their newly acquired boyfriends were, how hot they were and how many times they pulled in the past 24 hours. Those emails usually were accompanied by another email saying that they didn't mean to send them to me. I learnt to accept their styles of bragging and delete all emails which entered my inbox from them. I didn't even know why I checked it anymore.

I pressed the Internet key and turned to face Rosalie who had an annoyed grin on her face. I chuckled at her attempt of humour.

"Do you know long I have been standing here waiting for you to turn around?" She pouted.

"Just show me the clothes Rose."

"Well, this is my first choice. I know you might not like it Bella but it'll blow Mike away!" My eyes widened at the black Chiffon Mini that Rosalie held up in front of me.

"I am _not _wearing that no matter what you threaten me with!"

"I'll burn your Withering Heights book!" She snapped back.

I swept the room, frantically searching for the book as it was not where I had left it last night. Rosalie revealed its cover from behind her back. I scowled.

"Bella, you'll look so good!" she exclaimed, her face lighting up with excitement.

"Before you start, have you brought the light bulb you promised?"

"Yes, Bella, I have it hear." She smiled and waved the box in front of my eyes. She climbed up on the bed and replaced the burnt out bulb.

"Thanks." I muffled.

I swivelled the chair back round to face the computer. My homepage was 'The Forks 'Secrets of Beauty' Annual Contest'. Rosalie always entered herself into the contest and won mostly all but half of the mini competitions that were held there. He rival was the pixie faced Alice Cullen. She seemed a sweet whenever I had seen her. We usually found ourselves in the same elevator or shopping queue, but never made conversation. Rosalie and Alice usually stood as close together as possible shoving each other into other people and blaming it on the pushed. Rosalie was usually the one who started it and I was the one who silently mouthed the apology from her to Alice.

Alice seemed like a lovely person but the friendship between us was definitely off limits because she had beaten Rosalie by one contest in the overall result last year and Rosalie said she was destined to win.

I chucked at Rosalie's face when she glanced at the webpage which revealed last years photo of Alice holding the trophy and Rosalie cursing behind her. "If at first you don't succeed, try and try again!" I smiled.

"Yeah, _She_ said, 'If at first you don't succeed, don't try skydiving." She sighed. "She is so cheeky!"

Calm down Rose. You'll win it this year. You've researched everything. Just relax and doll me up, OK?"

She winked at me and scurried over. I sat there, hard as a stone, surfing the site while she did my hair, my make-up, my clothes, my nails….

"Rose! Are you done yet? It's been over 40 minutes! He'll be here soon, not that I object to staying up here instead of down there, but still! When _I_ take a long time, I am slow but when _you_ do, your thorough."

"Nearly Bells, nearly." She licked her lips as she tweaked my hair. The curls which she had place in the messy ponytail fell perfectly into place.

"Done!" She squealed. I pushed her out the way and made my way across to the mirror careful not to trip with the 4 inch Stilettos that she had super-glued to my feet. When I reached the mirror I nearly fell over in astonishment with the way I looked. It seemed like I was heading out to a strip club! OK, well not that sluttish, but nearly!

"Rosalie Lillian Hale! What on earth have you dressed me in? How much jewellery am I wearing?" I objected. Rosalie gave me 'The Eye'.

"OK, I am metallically over-burdened."

At that point the doorbell rang and my mouth fell into goldfish state.

"Don't worry Bella, you look stunning!" She smiled dragging me out the door and down the stairs to the hallway. She placed me in front of the door as I looked sheepishly through the glazed glass and stood, hands covering the bare flesh on my chest, looking obviously uncomfortable.

Rosalie clicked the door open and flew to the kitchen with Renee to give us some privacy. Both their versions of privacy were peeking round the door while we talk…

I swayed the door open and peered round. There stood Mike, medium height, seriously _not _my type but could have been labelled as a 'good catch' by most girls. His uneasy eyes took a glace up and down my body and stopped at my cleveage. He was checking me out and was not hiding it. I threw up a little in my mouth… Mike looked - mouth practically touching the floor - at me, not afraid of showing his awe.

"Earth to Mike…" I waved my hand in from of his face.

"Sorry," he snapped uncomfortably, "I just got lost in thought…"

I guessed - with the face he had on - that it was unfamiliar territory…

**A/N: Hey guys! Thanks for reading! You kn****ow what to do… Read and Review and be sure to tell me if you want me to continue. I'm introducing Edward and Emmett in the next chapter if I carry on. I have few sneaky ideas :) ****♥**


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